


I Know

by itsametaphorforlife



Category: Fear The Walking Dead - Fandom
Genre: Angst, During season 2, F/M, Fluff, Unrequited Love, in baja, independent sassy reader, kinda gets requited, nick is into that, on boat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 20:09:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7697818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsametaphorforlife/pseuds/itsametaphorforlife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You showed up to the Abigail Ranch covered in blood and dehydrated. It had been three long weeks since you've last seen Nick on the boat and you were ready to finally let your guard down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Now, pt1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry in advanced for the lame summary. But I hope the fic itself isn't that lame. I did this for an anon on my tumblr (mintyfreshmichonne.tumblr.com) 
> 
> Anon: i'm sorry, i can't send you a private message so could you possibly write about nick where the reader is the new to the group and she's very independent and a bit rude. she don't open up to many people, but nick was different. but one day she went missing and everyone thinks she's dead, nick's really upset bc he were slowly falling in love. she show up bruised and bloodied like three weeks later you can decide how it goes after that <3
> 
> Also I hope you don't mind me throwing in a bit of before the reader went missing, it just felt right for story purposes. :)

You showed up to the ranch dehydrated and covered in blood. Well, at least it wasn’t your blood, not all of it anyways. It was the middle of the afternoon and you were stinking to high heaven of the walker guts you were covered in and knew it wouldn’t be long before you collapsed from the heat and lack of water in your system. 

You heard people shouting in spanish, you were to dizzy to make out what they were saying but you assumed they thought you were a rotter. The gates opened before you and you saw armed people racing toward you. You held up your arms defensively and felt the world start spinning around you. You were too dehydrated and knew you were going to pass out any second now. 

“(Y/N?)” A familiar voice rose from the crowd and you managed to steady yourself long enough to see him. 

“Nick?” Your voice was cracked and distant and suddenly your legs wouldn’t stand anymore. As you fell to the ground, you felt strong arms catch you. 

“I thought you were dead?” Nick said trying to steady you. 

“I really hate being caught.” You heard yourself say as the world went dark around you.


	2. Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some insight on how the reader came to meet the group and why she had to leave. Also there's a Nick pov (kinda) thrown in there.

You held your arms over your head to show them you weren't a threat. Your small boat was going to sink any second now, and even though you hated to admit it, you needed to board these stranger's ship or else you were as good as dead. 

“Please,” You begged, the word tasted sour in your mouth. “You can have my weapons, my food, whatever. I just need a ride to the next coast and I’ll be fine.” The water was pooling around your legs now. 

“Strand,” The blond woman begged looking at who you assumed must be the captain of the ship. 

“Dammit Madison,” Strand said, turning to Madison. ”I told you before I’m not having anyone else on my ship.”

“Come on man, she’s going to die without our help.” Piped up a long brown haired boy. 

“Nick’s right.” A wide eyed girl, probably Nick’s sister defended. “It’s just one girl. We can handle it.”

“Fine.” Strand’s voice was sharp and stern. He turned to you. “You can stay until the next coast. But I swear if you try anything, I will personally fling you off this boat.” He turned and walked away.

****  
After you had made your way onto the Abigail, the girl, whose name was Alicia, showed you around and introduced you to everybody. A man named Daniel took your weapons with an impressed expression, and upon seeing your disheartened face when he took your favorite knife, offered it back to you. 

“Don’t give me a reason to regret this.” He said, staring you down. You nodded and asked for a fishing pole, which Daniel handed over without problem. 

They invited you to dinner that night but you refused. You weren’t going to depend on these people anymore than you needed to. Instead you sat on the deck and waited by your fishing pole, hoping you’d catch something soon. 

“Need some company?” You looked up to see Nick, standing over you with a plate of food. “I brought some food.” 

“No.” You said simply and looked back to the water.

“No to which part?” Nick asked, sitting next to you. 

“Pick one.” 

“Jeesh, Sorry.” Nick said and the silence that followed began to make you uncomfortable. “So are you just going to survive off of raw fish for the next few days?” 

“As long as I need to.” 

“I’ve never been much of a sushi person myself.” You don’t know why but that made you smile. “Ah there it is. “ Nick laughed. “Didn’t know you could smile like that.” 

Suddenly your pole began to go crazy. You stood up and balanced yourself and the pole in your hand. Nick stood up too and watched you furiously reel your fish. 

“Need help?” He asked.

“No.” You struggled for a moment and with the last bit of your strength you yanked up the fish and stumbled backwards. 

“Whoa, (Y/N)!” Nick said, catching you in his arms before you could fall. “You okay?” He asked, sincerely when you were balanced again. 

“I really hate being caught.” You mumbled and walked away to gut your fish.   
*****  
A few days passed and you were beginning to warm up to the group, but not quite. You weren’t ready to open yourself up to them just yet. You would sit around and listen to their stories, where they were when the outbreak happened what they had to do to survive until this point, and even what they missed most about the world before the outbreak. You listened to all of this and more but you never contributed to the conversation. You hated sharing more than you needed to and didn’t want to form connections with these people, knowing that any second you would have to leave them, or that they would turn into one of those monsters. 

But every time Chris would fish with you and open up about his mother, or when Alicia would offer you some wine, or when Nick would crack a joke to make you smile, you slowly felt yourself becoming one of them. 

One night, you were lying on the deck, bundled in blankets and watching the stars. You had a room, of course, but you preferred the cool comfort of the deck and felt solace in the night sky. 

“Mind if I join you?” Nick asked, lying down on the deck next to you. 

“Go for it.” You said dryly, trying to show him you didn't care. 

“You know what the most underrated thing about the apocalypse is?” He asked, staring up at the night sky. 

“No pollution, no noise, no people. Just stars. Like the universe is more open to you.” you felt the words just slip away from you. 

“Yeah, actually.” Nick laughed. “That’s almost exactly what I was going to say. Minus the whole universe part.” You smiled and hit Nick lightly on the arm. 

“Hey, (Y/N).” Nick’s voice had a serious edge to it. “Can I ask you something? Seriously?” 

“Sure Nick.” 

“Why don’t you trust us? I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just, we want to get to know you and you’re always just so distant.”

“Look,” you took a deep breath. “I can’t really trust anybody in this world. We’re all just trying to survive on our own terms and I don’t see the point in trying to connect with anybody when I know…”

“That they’re just going to die?” Nick spoke softly. 

“Or leave me.” Your voice cracked and gave you away. The memories of what happened to your family and friends were flooding your mind. 

“(Y/N).” you looked over to Nick who was staring at you, and felt his hand on yours. “We’re not going to leave you. I’ll talk to Strand about it.”

You retracted your hand from Nick’s and turned to your side. You weren’t going to let him see you get emotional, you were already too vulnerable with him.

“Okay, I’m going to bed.” You heard Nick get up and start to walk away. “Just know we care about you (Y/N), I care about you.”   
*********************  
The next morning the ship broke down and you spotted a coast where a plane had crashed. Daniel took you, Nick, Alicia, and Chris to the plot of land to scavenge while the others tried to figure out what was wrong with the ship. 

On land you immediately went separate directions despite Daniel’s protest. You packed away some clothes and medical supplies before you heard screams ahead. Grabbing your knife, you made your way towards the screams and began to slice into walkers. There was a hoard separating you from the rest of the group, but you didn’t care, you needed to get to them. 

You drilled your way through the walkers, and broke through as Alicia was being surrounded. Quickly you brought your knife to a walker’s head, and yelled for the other walkers to turn to you. This gave enough time for Alicia to get out her weapon and to help you.   
When you all met up by the small boat, Nick hugged you tightly. He was covered in walker blood but you didn’t care, you liked being in his arms. “Thank you.” He whispered in your ear.

“For what?” 

“Saving my sister.”

“Sure, no problem.” You said, pulling away and climbing into the small boat.  
*********  
Back on the Abigail, tensions rose as Strand cut loose the new people that had arrived from the airplane crash. He threatened to throw you off too but Nick came to your defense and it was decided that you could stay. 

When everything was settled, you sat on the deck with Nick and stared at the ocean waves, searching for any sign of those people that strand had cut loose.

You both sat in silence for a while before you spoke up. “Thank you for defending me.” 

“Hey, you’re one of us.” Nick shrugged. “The least I could do.” 

“So the thing with the blood?” You began, but couldn’t quite know where you were going with it.

“I think it confuses them.” Nick said, “When I came face to face with the walkers, I wasn’t afraid. They weren’t going to attack me. I think the scent of their own blood makes them think we’re one of them.” 

You laughed. 

“What’s so funny?” He asked. 

“I’m one of you, and you’re one of them. How does that work?” 

Nick smiled. “You’re one of them too, just got to cover yourself in some blood is all.”

“No thanks, I’ve had too much blood on me already.” You couldn’t stop the words from flowing from your mouth. It was all so easy with Nick, and you instantly regretted it.

“(Y/N), what happened to you before?” 

You didn’t realize it until it was too late but tears were already streaming down your cheeks. 

“(Y/N)?” Nick reached his hand out to touch your cheek and you hit his hand away defensively. 

“Forget about it.” You said, standing up and wiping your cheek before heading to your room. 

After that night, Nick didn’t bother to ask you about your past. He would make jokes or talk about some of his weird party experiences, and sometimes just sit and hang out with you. You tried to distance yourself with smart ass comments or rudely ignore him, but he kept trying to hang out with you anyways. He was like an annoying puppy you didn’t want to like, but did anyways. 

Even when the boat was attacked by Connor and his men, you didn’t let on that you remotely cared for Nick, when inside you were terrified of losing him. 

“I-I’m glad you’re okay.” Nick had said, close to tears when he hugged you tightly. 

You had lightly pushed him away. “I’m fine. We need to save Alicia and Travis.” And that was it. 

Only a few days after, did you arrive at the Mexico border and Luis told everyone to get below deck. You found out late, having just awoken from a late afternoon nap, to hear Luis negotiating with men. 

You heard yelling and gunshots and Quickly grabbed your knife and emergency bag. You barged out of your room just as men were heading down your hall. They turned and pointed their guns at you, but you were faster and ran up the stairs, through the boat and to the deck. More men trained their guns at you and you decided this was it. You ran and jumped off the deck, just as bullets began to ring past you. One hit you in the shoulder and exited. 

“I’ll be okay.” You thought, swimming through the pain towards land. And although you were confident you would survive, you knew you weren’t going to be okay. You were leaving the people who had just started to consider you family, and most importantly, you were leaving the boy you had started to fall in love with.   
************  
Nick: 

When he found out you were gone, Nick became very quiet. He did what he had to do when they got on land, he fought the walkers at the church and he made his way to the Abigail Ranch without much protest. But inside, Nick was breaking. His mind raced and he couldn’t believe you were gone. He desperately wished you would come back. He wanted to make stupid jokes, and for you to roll your eyes and say something mean to him. He wanted to hear your cynical tone of voice when you spoke, and wanted you to punch him in the arm when he got out of line. Most of all he wanted you back to set things right. Nick wanted you to know that every time he told you that you were one of them, he meant it. You weren’t just part of the group to Nick, he was in love with you and now he was afraid he’d never get to tell you.   
********

You had to get to Baja, Mexico and you had to get there as soon as possible. You knew that’s where they were going, and hadn’t Strand mentioned a ranch? For three weeks you stole maps, fought walkers, fought people, and scavenged what you could to survive. You remembered what Nick had said about the blood and covered yourself the best you could. You had ran out of water a little over an hour ago, and were getting dehydrated. But you felt close to your destination, you had made it to Baja and followed the tire tracks away from the church. Everything was coming together, you just hoped you could get there before you died of dehydration.


	3. Now pt. 2

You woke up in a bed. Someone was wiping your face with a wet rag. “She is awake.” A woman’s voice you didn’t recognize called down to you. You opened your eyes and and the woman helped you sit up as Nick rushed to your side. 

“(Y/N).” Nick was smiling, but his eyes looked sad, probably due to the way you looked. The last three weeks hadn’t been kind to you. You had been shot (you managed to patch that up when you got to land), you were covered in cuts and bruises, and your lips had been severely cracked from dehydration. 

“Hey there stranger.” You smiled even though it hurt. 

“You made it. I can’t believe you’re here.” Nick held your hands and you didn’t retract them. “You used the walker trick and now you’re here.” He was whispering, not really looking at you. Lost in his own thought, his own world. You didn’t mind at all.   
*********  
It took a few days for you to feel like yourself again. You had taken numerous showers, eaten your weight in pozole (Celia practically force fed you), and drank more water than you knew what to do with. Your lips were smooth again, and your muscles felt right again. Plus, you were reunited with everybody from the boat again, especially Nick, who damn near wouldn’t let you out of his sight. 

You were sitting outside in the patio chairs with Nick and Alicia. It was night and you were catching up on their stories. When Alicia retired for the night, you decided to tell Nick everything.

“I’m about to pour my fucking heart out to you,” You warned him, “so don’t interrupt or make fun of me.” 

“I promise.” Nick laughed and you told Nick of your life before the apocalypse, the friends you had to leave behind and the family you had to watch die and kill. You told Nick of the three weeks you spent on the road. How you came across another group of people, those who weren’t so nice and try to do things to you. You told him how you had to kill them while they were sleeping just to get away. Nick held your hand tightly as you fought back tears. 

“It’s okay though.” You said, wiping away tears. “Because I knew I had to do whatever I could to get here. To get back to you, Nick. Because…” You clenched your jaw and forced the words out, “Because I think I love you.”

Nick smiled brightly at that. “You think?” 

“Shut up.” 

“No. Because I know.” 

“Know what?” 

“I know that I love you, (Y/N).” Nick said. Looking at you with those sad brown eyes. “When you left, I thought I would never see you again. That really fucked me up. So when I saw you covered in blood, all those feelings I had for you just sorta hit me at once and I just knew that I loved you. I want to do everything I can so you never have to go through that again, at least not without me by your side.”

“Shut up.” You said. Nick looked confused. “Shut up and kiss me before I change my mind.” 

Nick smiled at your demand and obliged. He leaned in and pressed his lips against yours and you knew you were home.


End file.
